Concerto
by The Sociopathism of Trees
Summary: Music is her escape. Music led him to her. Summary sucks sry. Better than it sounds.


**Concerto**

Green eyes swept across the dusty old keys of the black grand piano. It was the best find she could have imagined. She had had a free period and decided to explore the grounds of the Academy. She had started with the music hall, her favorite building in the entire school. Her mother always said that her daughter had an undeniable knack for music. From the young age of six she spent hours at her own grand piano learning every piece of classic music that would make the instrument sing. And her heart would always sing back.

The music hall had possessed a grand piano but it was nothing more than an out of tune saloon instrument. A door caught her eye. It was hidden partially behind a red velvet curtain. Behind it she found a creaky old twisting staircase. The room she had found at the top of those stairs was huge. It must have taken up the complete third level of the building.

The forgotten grand piano stood in front of a wall made up entirely of windows. She could see the city buildings off to the right and the open expanse of farmland and countryside to the left.

Pulling back her hair in a low ponytail to keep the pink locks from interfering, she sat down on the faded green bench. She brushed her fingers gently across the keys. They kicked up a little dust but not enough to make her cough.

She began to play.

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He left his class in a frustrated rush. It had been a very long day filled with idiot best friends and screaming fan girls. He could never catch a break. Now he had to go home and face a demanding father and his favored perfect brother.

He had finished his work early and the teacher had let him leave early. And he was damned if he wouldn't take advantage of it. Now he could leave without being mobbed by vain girls.

A dark cloud of anger settled over him as he began to storm out of the school. But as he walked past the music hall to the front gates his angry cloud was cut to ribbons. Someone was playing Mozart's Piano Concerto #23. And they were playing it beautifully.

The music floated through the air and wafted throughout the hallways. It swept away his anger and replaced it with calm. He had never heard it played this way. His mother had taken him to many concerts and orchestras once she had found out about his love of classical music. All those time the music had just seemed like music, beautiful music, but just music. This was different in a way he couldn't explain.

He began to walk toward the sound, wanting to know who played it. He made it to the center of the school. The bell rang and the playing stopped abruptly. Everywhere students flooded out of doors, oblivious to the magic he had just heard.

An arm was thrown over his shoulder and broke him completely out of the daze he had unknowingly fallen into.

"Teme! What are you doing standing here? Let's go get ramen!"

He didn't answer the blonde. He didn't get a chance to. Something collided with his back. He turned to see a girl pick up a few books that had fallen. She looked up at him with apologetic green eyes.

"I'm sorry, I should have been watching where I was going."

She picked up her last book and walked hurriedly out the school gates. The blonde watched her go with an amused glint in his eye.

"That girl is never watching where she is going. She always spaces off in class. She just seems to be somewhere else all the time. Hinata has all the same classes together with her and she says that girl is really nice when you can get her to talk. Apparently she talks less than you do. What a feat that is!"

Sasuke smacked Naruto upside the head and walked away.

"Dobe."

"Hey!"

……………….……………………………………………………………………………

Sakura walked through the hall and into the den. Her mother lay on her bed there more pale than usual. Sakura and her father had moved her there when she had first taken ill. She said she wanted to stay near the piano so she could listen to her daughter play.

Sakura set her books and school bag on the floor next to the door and walked into the room. Her mother's eyes fluttered open weakly and her fever clouded emerald eyes glanced Sakura's way. She lifted her hand and pointed to the grand piano.

"Play me Beethoven's Piano Sonata 'Moonlight'?"

The sixteen year old girl nodded and sat down at the piano. The air filled with music as her heart began to cry, the emotion filling her eyes and spilling over the edge. This was her mother's favorite piece. And the last thing she would ever hear. Mrs. Haruno's had finally taken her.

Sakura finished playing and kissed her mother's cold cheek. She walked to the back door and ran as fast as she could as far away as she could get.

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It was a month later when Sasuke heard the music again. He was walking back from the restroom when he heard Für Elise echo sadly through the school.

He never mentioned the music to anyone. No one else, from his point of view, would have stopped to notice or admire the sounds. So he kept it to himself, hoping that he would hear whoever was playing play again.

Looking down at his watch he sighed. He had a final exam in the class he was taking this block. There was no way he could skip it. He delayed as long as he could before finally going back to his class.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

She couldn't stop the tears from falling. It made her feel so guilty for trying to stop them. But since she could remember she had always hated crying. Only the music she continued to play kept her sane.

"_Mommy?"_

_Mrs. Haruno stopped playing and looked down at her young daughter._

"_Yes Honey?"_

"_Will you teach me how to make such pretty sounds? I want to play like you!"_

"_Of course I will! Would you like to start now?"_

_"Yes! Yes, oh yes please!"_

"_Then come on up here Sweety." Mrs. Haruno moved to one side and patted the open seat next to her._

_Sakura smiled as brightly as she could before climbing up on to the bench beside her mother. _

"_The keys are just like letters. You've learned your letters well so this should be easy for you." She pointed to a key. "This is C."_

Für Elise was the first song she had ever learned to play. She saw it now as a lament of sorts for her mother.

She kept playing until the end of school bell broke into the wall of music she had surrounded herself with.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Sasuke sat down between Naruto and a brown haired boy with white eyes. They were arguing about Naruto's girlfriend Hinata. Some nonsense about the blonde taking her to ramen too much and it not being healthy.

He looked out across the quad at all the people sitting in their clumps of friends. One of these people had to be the mysterious pianist.

A flash of pink turned his head. There on the other side of the quad was the girl that bumped into him a month ago. She was sitting next to his number one fangirl, the alarmingly blonde Miss Yamanaka. She had her eyes closed and was laying on her back in the grass while Ino blabbed on about something in a particularly animated fashion.

She turned her head and caught him looking at her. Ino lit up and waved at him while using her other hand to shake the pink haired girl. The pink haired girl sat up slowly and looked blankly at her friend.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

"Oh Sakura! Look! He's looking at me!"

Sakura sighed. She had been in the middle of planning the string section of her new symphony.

"Okay."

She lay back down and watched the few puffy clouds roll across the blue sky. After a few quiet seconds Ino's blonde head and hurt blue eyes entered her vision.

"This is the greatest thing to happen in, like, forever!"

Sakura closed one eye and looked at Ino with the other.

"I thought you had a boyfriend. Shikamaru remember?"

Ino pouted and crossed her arms. Sakura closed her other eye and began to drift off into her inner mind of music.

"Shikamaru is my boyfriend. But have you seen Sasuke? He is amazing! And he is good at everything! Just like you would be if you weren't always dreaming of your symphonies! They consume you! Have you even realized yet that you only ever talk to me?"

"Not true, I talk to Hinata sometimes."

"Yeah, one or two words a month doesn't count."

"In my defense it was three words this month."

"Was that a joke? Did the silent musician just make a joke? The apocalypse is coming!"

................................................................................................................................................

Nothing was happening that day in class so he decided to ditch. The moment he stepped out of the classroom the music began. It was almost like it was making a path for him. Music notes instead of bread crumbs.

The most obvious place to look was the music hall. So he started there. The auditorium was full of instruments and a piano but the sound alone told him that it was not that piano being played. The sound was a bit more muffled in here, but not enough for him to loose it.

He paused a moment on the stage. He couldn't identify the song. It was nothing he had ever heard before. It was sad but at the same time it was happy. Like a light at the end of a dark and close tunnel. Like plants sprouting from a ground that had been horribly burned.

There was a door behind the red curtain. He had never seen it there before. As he got closer to the door the song swelled and came to a peak. He opened the door and climbed the stairs.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Like a bird flitting through the bright blue sky after a long rain. It was perfect. A better lament than Für Elise. It was her own creation. She had been sitting on a park bench the day her mother had passed when it began to spin through her mind. After a week where she had refused to play any sort of music she decided to finish it. 'A Song for Lilies' had become better than she ever imagined it could. She had begun to think about creating another symphony based on this song. Sakura smiled ruefully, Ino would probably lecture her on spending too much time with her music and not enough time with guys. But she would much rather continue her music than talk to some guy.

The last note hung in the air before fading. She let her hands fall in to her lap as she stared out the windows and beyond the countryside.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

There she was. The girl who had bumped into him. The girl that supposedly never talked and seemed to never have her mind in the present. His mysterious pianist.

She sat in a dusty old room full of forgotten instruments. The open windows let in a soft breeze that lifted the dust and made it dance in spirals like flecks of glitter. Her hair moved as the breeze played in it, her eyes gazed intently at the keys as her fingers moved delicately across them.

She played without any music to guide her.

He had found his mysterious pianist yet he didn't even know her name.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Soft clapping freed her from her thoughts. She turned her head to see Ino's fascination. He stood just inside the threshold clapping for her. A small blush warmed her face.

"Thank you." Her voice was small, she didn't think any one had heard her.

"What is your name?"

"Sakura Haruno. And yourself?"

"Sasuke Uchiha."

Sakura stared down at her fingers as he moved into the room. He found a dusty old chair and began to clean it off as best he could.

"Did it annoy you?"

"What?" He turned to look at her with his silent dark eyes.

"My playing."

"Not at all. You play beautifully. Please continue."

He brought over the semi clean chair and sat next to her as she began another song of her own composition.

"What were you playing before?"

"I call it 'A song for Lilies'."

"You composed it?"

She nodded and he watched her fingers dance across the ivory.

"And this one?"

"Piano Sonata #3"

"Yours as well?"

She nodded again.

"When did you write them?"

She looked out the windows and kept playing. Her fingers knew each key perfectly.

"This one was when I was ten. The earlier piece I wrote just last month."

His eyes widened.

"Do you always play without music?"

She turned to look at him.

"No, mostly just at school. At home I sometime can't find my sheet music so I usually just memorize it."

The bell rang loudly. Sakura sighed and stopped playing. Sasuke stood slowly.

"Will you play tomorrow?"

She shook her head.

"I only have free periods every other day."

He nodded in understanding. And she stood as well. They walked down the stairs and through the door behind the curtain in silence. Sitting in one of the red velvet seats was Ino. She clapped as Sakura approached.

"That first one was really great Forehead. Did you write it for your mom?"

"Yes."

Ino's eyes caught sight of Sasuke and she jumped up.

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke kept a bland look on his face, trying to cover up his dislike.

"You are her friend then?"

The blonde laughed.

"Yep. She isn't telling you other wise is she? She tries to get rid of me by saying her music is her only friend but I beg to differ."

Sakura shook her head slightly.

"No Ino, music is my sanity, you are my insane friend."

Ino looked shocked before grinning.

"Two jokes in one day! And you are talking more today then you have in a year!"

She turned to Sasuke, her grin still bright.

"You Mr. Uchiha have done what I could not."

He just grunted and looked away. Sakura jumped down from the stage to stand next to Ino.

"Let's go. Dad said he wanted to hear mother's song before he left on his trip. And you still have to help me get groceries on the way home."

Sasuke turned to watch them go before turning to walk to the administration office. He needed a schedule change.


End file.
